Psalm 37:4

Enjoy serving the LORD, and he will give you whatever you ask for.

The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to a relationship with God, but to the sincere believer it is a recognized truth. The life of the believer is described here as a delight in God, and we are thus reminded of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than "holiness" and "delight." But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving him from obligation, they would follow him though all the world cast out his name as evil. We don't respect God because of any compulsion. Our faith is no handcuff and our profession of faith is not bondage. We are not dragged to holiness or driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, and our duty is our delight.

Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by side in a setting of gold.

• "'Tis when we taste thy love,
• Our joys divinely grow,
• Unspeakable like those above,
• And heaven begins below."